Administrative

Eon Productions has a new or revamped website that reflects how the production company has a broader portfolio than the James Bond film series.

For example, the site’s film page has entries for Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, The Silent Storm, Radiator and Nancy. The 24-film 007 series has a single entry with a link back to the official James Bond film website, 007.com.

The Eon film page does not include an entry for Call Me Bwana, the Bob Hope comedy that, for decades, was the company’s only non-007 film. An advertisement for that movie was included in From Russia With Love, replacing Niagara. An advertisement for that Marilyn Monroe movie was used in the Ian Fleming novel.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, produced by Eon co-founder Albert R. Broccoli with a number of 007 film veterans on the crew, was made by a separate production company, Warfield Productions. It’s not on the film page either.

Finally, the film page, for now, does not have an entry for The Rhythm Section, Eon’s non-007 spy film where production currently is suspended because of an injury to star Blake Lively.

The new Eon site also has a theater page, reflecting the company’s interest in stage productions.

It has entries for stage productions of Strangers on a Train, The Country Girls, Chariots of Fire, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Love Letters, Once, The Kid Stays in the Picture and Othello.

There is also a news section to the website. The most recent entry is a Jan. 29 story about Nancy winning the Waldo Salt Screenwriting award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Still, the evidence available to outsiders suggest 2018 is no longer operative, if it ever was.

Eon announced July 12 it would make The Rhythm Section, a spy thriller featuring a female lead played by Blake Lively. According to the announcement, filming is to begin later this year.

The last two Bond films, Skyfall (2012) and SPECTRE (2015) began filming in November and December respectively of the years before they were released.

Bond 25, with no confirmed leading man, no director and no script, doesn’t seem to be on track for 2018.

At this point, the question is whether 2019 is realistic. Eon is supposed to be producing a historical war movie starting late this year, according to the James Bond MI6 website.

So when does Bond 25 actually get into production and come out?

Who knows? We won’t get much information until at least Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer reaches a deal with another studio to release Bond 25. As of today, there’s no such deal.

What does this mean?

It means this is not your father’s (or grandfather’s) James Bond film series.

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the founders of Eon, had various non-Bond film projects. But, aside from 1963’s Call Me Bwana, Broccoli and Saltzman didn’t do them through Eon. They did them through separate production companies.

Eon has a lot on its plate. Not all of its various projects have become reality. In the early 2000s, a proposed Jinx movie was junked, for example.

But, for now, things are more complicated than the days (say 1977-1989) when Cubby Broccoli produced Bond movies every two years. Maybe every three years.

That line was spoken by James Bond’s caddie in Goldfinger as it becomes evident the villain is cheating during a round a golf.

The line was also an indication of the global popularity of golfer Arnold Palmer, who died Sunday at the age of 87, according to obituaries by numerous news outlets, including The New York Times. His death was also announced on Twitter by the United States Golf Association.

Palmer also had an association with Eon Productions, appeared in the production company’s second film, Call Me Bwana.

The latter depends if Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures wins the bidding for the rights to the Greenwald book according to AN OCT. 11 STORY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES. Other studios are also seeking the rights to the book, according to the Times story. (Broccoli didn’t respond to the newspaper’s requests to comment.)

When Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman co-founded Eon Productions in 1961, they planned to do non-007 projects. The duo did produce the Bob Hope comedy Call Me Bwana. After that, however, they went their separate ways on non-Bond material. Saltzman produced the Harry Palmer series and other films without Broccoli. Broccoli produced Chitty Chitty Bang Bang without Saltzman.

By the 1970s, Broccoli was concentrating on the Bond series primarily. Saltzman pursued other projects but financial problems forced him to sell off his interest in 1975.

Under the new normal, Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson appear to be following the Saltzman model — exploring stage and film projects beyond the 007 series — more than the Albert R. Broccoli model. Or perhaps they’re going back to the model that Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman intended to follow.

It’s the title song for Call Me Bwana, the movie Eon Productions Ltd. made in between Dr. No and From Russia With Love.

For Bond fans, it’s mostly famous for the scene in FRWL when Bond helps Kerim Bey kill a murderous Bulgar. An ad for Call Me Bwana, including a likeness of a smiling Anita Ekberg, is on the side of the building. The names of Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman are visible. In Ian Fleming’s novel, the correspondign sequence had an ad for Niagara, the movie that made Marilyn Monroe a star but was released by 20th Century Fox. The 007 producers decided to substitute their own comedy “epic” (released by United Artists, the Bond studio).

As it turns out, Call Me Bwana had many of the crew members who’d have a big impact on Eon’s Bond movies, including special effects wizard John Stears, editor Peter Hunt and director of photography Ted Moore.

Anyway, here’s old Ski Nose, Bob Hope, the star of Call Me Bwana, performing the song. In the video you can see an old 45 record where Monty Norman, the composer of The James Bond Theme, is credited with the song: